Carton flap opener



Dec. 9, 1952 E. A. WAHL EI'AL CARTON FLAP OPENER Filed Dec. 21, 1951 2SHEETS-SI-IEE'I l e ,z w zl a By Ralph Jiwinl'ers.

Dec. 9, 1952 E. A. WAHL ETI'AL CARTON FLAP OPENER 2 SI-IEETS-$l-IEET 2INVENTORS Eugene A.WahL Ra Plz/ I Winters.

Filed D60. 21 1951 Patented Dec. 9, 1952 CARTON FLAP OPENER Eugene A.Wahl, Glen Ridge, and Ralph J. Winters, Nutley, N. .L, assignors to P.Ballantine & Sons, Newark, N. J a corporation of New Jersey ApplicationDecember 21, 1951, Serial No. 262,806

4 Claims.

The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus forinspecting the interior and/or contents of cartons, or for filling andemptying cartons, and more particularly to a method and apparatus forunfolding the carton fiaps from folded closed position to unfolded openposition to automatically have access to the interior of the carton forany desired purpose.

Heretofore attempts have been made to provide mechanical means forunfolding carton flaps. However, the prior art developed for thispurpose is not entirely mechanical as the flaps must be initiallyunfolded manually and are then held open by flap spreaders, untilinspection is completed. Also such prior art is primarily for dumpingthe carton contents and the actual flap opening is usually done byinverting the carton and depending upon the weight of the contents toforce open the flaps. I

An object of the present invention is to provide the method of unfoldingloose carton flaps from closed folded positions by fluid pressure.

Another object is to provide a novel arrangement of apparatus forconveying cartons through various pressure zones to unfold the foldedclosed flaps of cartons, formed of cardboard or any other material, suchas plastic, metal or .wood which might be formed with such loose flaps.

A further object is to provide in combination with a carton conveyor, asingle blower adapted to provide both air suction and air blastconditions above the carton flaps in the proper order to unfold and openout the carton flaps as the cartons are progressively fed forward by theconveyor to a suitable inspection station.

The above and further objects and advantages of the present inventionwill appear more fully from the following detailed description in whichone form of apparatus for practicing the same is described andillustrated in connection with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side perspective view of one form of apparatus including aconveyor and the carton flap opening mechanism.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the apparatus of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawings in detail and first with reference to Figure1, there is illustrated a conveyor Ill. The conveyor may be of anydesired construction, such as of the roller type shown or of the endlessbelt type and is preferably power driven. Several supporting legs II,I2, I3 and I4 are provided on each side of the ponveyor. The bed of theconveyor is bordered along each longitudinal side thereof by guide railsl5 and I6 between which the cartons I! are progressively conveyedthrough a suction zone A, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced apartair blast zones B, C and D. The final zone E is the inspection zone oroperating zone as at this position of the carton, the flaps arecompletely unfolded into open position.

Assisting the air blast stations with their flap opening work areelongated flap turning and hold down bars I8 and I9, respectively. Thebar It is longer than bar I9 so as to have priority of operation overbar I9. The bar I8 is supported in a plane above the top edge of theguide rail I5 by a U-shaped bracket 20. The leading end of the flapturning bar I8 is curved upward with respect to the conveyor and theconvex part of the curved end serves as a flap control cam '22. The camend 22 forces the first suction raised and opened side flap 23 atstation B to swing over and down to the side of the carton as it reachesstation C. The flap 23 at station A before' arriving at station E isboosted from folded closed position to a partially open positionby afeetangular suction hood 24. The hood 24 is formed as a part of thegooseneck conduit25, which is connected to the side of a housing 25 atthe air intake or suction side of a blower and thus will by s"ctionelevate the flap 23 over which the hood 24 is positioned. Inthe mouth ofthesuction hood or nozzle 24 is a screen not shown, to prevent any partof the carton flap from being sucked in at this point and thus causingthe carton to get caught therein.

The air exhaust of the blower fiows out of the housing 26 through an ehaust conduit 28 opened to the exhaust side of the blower 21., The x;-haust conduit is curved above and over the conveyor I0 into a manifoldarrangement, see Figure 2. For example, a plurality of air blast tubescurved and angularly turned so as to position their respective outletnozzles 30, 3|, 32 and 33 at predetermined angles with respect to thecarton flaps lead off from the conduit 28. First, the nozzle 39 atstation B provides the means for blowing open the carton flap 23 fromits partial suction raised position at station A; second, the rearwardlyand angularly curved nozzle 3| provides the means for blowing open theother opposite side flap 23b and the trailing end flap 230 at station Cand the blast nozzle 32 at this same station blows open the leading endflap 23d. As the carton I1 is advanced on the conveyor from station Ethe side flap 23 is held down in its swung open position by the turningbar I3 for the balance of the conveying action through the inspectionstation D. As the carton leaves station C with the flaps 23, 23b, and230 swung open, the cam surface 34 of the curved end of flap turning barI9 similarly forces the opposite side flap 23d down toward the exteriorside of the carton and the air blast from nozzle 32 holds the trailingend flap 230 in swung down open position, while simultaneously openingthe leading end flap 23d. The field of action provided by the nozzle 33extends for a distance of several feet at station D, thereby permittingample time for inspection of bottles or any contents in the earton. Fromthe inspection station D the carton I! is allowed to either proceed tothe bottlehouse or to a sorting station, not shown.

When it is desired to start the apparatus, the blower 21 may be poweredfrom a suitable source of electric energy, not shown, and controlled bya push-button switch 35, see Fig. 1.

Without further description, it is believed that the present method andthe particular embodiment illustrated and its operation are clear and itis to be expressly understood that while only one embodiment is shownfor practicing this invention, there are numerous variations possible inthe arrangement, combination and construction of the parts, which nowmay occur to those skilled in the art, and which may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention.

Reference should be had to the appended claims for a definition of thelimits of the invention.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for unfolding the folded closed flaps of unsealed cartonscomprising a conveyor, a blower mounted adjacent a side of the conveyor,said blower having a housing supporting and journalling the blower forrotation in the housing, an air intake opening in the housing at theintake of the blower, an air exhaust opening in the housing adjacent theexhaust side of the blower, an air intake conduit formed with arectangular suction head connected to the said air intake opening, anair exhaust conduit connected to the said air exhaust opening, saidsuction conduit being curved over the surface of the conveyor at theforward intake end thereof, and a plurality of carton flap unfolding airexhaust nozzles so positioned, so shaped and curved as to overhang thesaid conveyor at spaced apart positions along the length thereof.

2. Means for unfolding carton flaps to an opened out position,comprising a traveling conveyor bed for conveying cartons with unsealedfolded cover flaps, a blower housing having an air intake opening, anair exhaust opening, a blower rotatably mounted on a power-driven shafttransverse the housing, said suction side of the blower being adjacentthe air intake opening and said exhaust side of the fan being adjacentthe air exhaust opening, a suction conduit connected to said housingaround said air intake opening having a nozzle curved to overhang oneside flap of a carton on the conveyor bed, an exhaust conduit curved tooverhang the conveyor bed, and a plurality of blower tubes curved anddirected downwardly to thereby blow open the carton flaps as a carton isconveyed forward by the conveyor bed.

3. Means for unfolding carton flaps to an opened out position,comprising, a traveling conveyor bed for conveying cartons with looselyfolded over flaps, a fan housing having an air intake opening an airexhaust opening, a fan rotatably mounted on a power-driven shafttransverse the housing, said suction side of the fan being adjacent theair intake opening and said exhaust side of the fan being adjacent theair exhaust opening, a suction conduit connected to said housing aroundsaid air intake opening having a nozzle curved to overhang one side flapof a carton on the conveyor bed, an exhaust conduit curved to overhangthe conveyor bed, a plurality of blower tubes curved and directeddownwardly to thereby blow open the carton flaps as a carton is conveyedforward by the conveyor bed, and flap turning means mounted on each sideof said conveyor bed adapted to retain some of said flaps in folded openpositions.

4. The means for unfolding carton flaps described in claim 3, whereinthe flap turning means comprise elongated bars curved at each leadingend to form a cam surface, said cam surface of each bar beinglongitudinally spaced on opposite sides of the conveyor whereby one camsurface has carton flap turning priority over the other as a carton isconveyed past each cam surface.

EUGENE A. WAHL. RALPH J. WINTERS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 460,093 Purvis Sept. 22, 18912,353,736 Le Frank July 18 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date470,575 Germany Jan. 18, 1929

